Gardening Blog

{ Posts Tagged ‘Observatoire de la Capitale’ }

My brother Pete says, “sometimes, the best view of home is in the rearview mirror.” This is especially true in midwinter, when we flower-starved gardeners need a little gingering up to keep us going through the cold, dark months. What to do?

How about luxury, fine dining and fun in Quebec City, one of the most romantic in North America? Our journalists’ Girlfriend Getaway included plenty of both.

First up was champagne and schnibbies in the Princess Grace suite of the historic Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac hotel. This was followed by a special menu in their restaurant created just for our group, and accompanied by lovely wines. In the photo is my appetizer: lobster salad with milkweed, pan fried scallops, caviar cream and ginger. Yum, yum, yum. Yes, it’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it. (www.fairmont.com)

Our sleepover host was the Hilton, which has a handy location right on the edge of the old city. My comfortable, newly renovated room looked down on Bonhomme Carnaval’s ice palace, with the mighty St. Lawrence river in the distance. (www.hiltonquebec.com)

The city is beautiful–the old part has a very European flair and its centre is very walkable, and around every corner you see lovely architecture and interesting sights. For example, I spotted all kinds of ingenious mini-toboggans, some with little canvas igloos on top, on which well-wrapped-up babies were being pulled around the streets with ease (sure beats trying to push a pram through the snow).

One of the highlights was a visit to the observatory, which is the city’s tallest building, with panoramic, 360 degree views, as shown by the photo at the top of this post. (www.observatoirecapitale.org).

And there are plenty of lively dining establishments to try, some with entertainment. One of these is the Voodoo Grill, which not only has an eclectic menu I’d describe as mediterranean-indo-chino-fusion, but also African art and belly dancers–one of whom shimmied around with a crown of lit candles on her head. (www.voodoogrill.com)

As someone who can barely be trusted to safely carry a lighted candle from point A to point B, I found this pretty impressive.